The Legislature was busy with floor debate last week as several bills of interest passed their first chamber.
By a vote of 88-0, the Iowa House approved a bill the ICC has supported for many years. HF 570 offers discharge credits, educational credits, and workforce credits that reduce an individual’s term of probation. The purpose of the bill is to help offenders reintegrate into society sooner without undermining public safety. The maximum reduction of the individual’s probation term earned through these credits may not exceed 40%. In addition, the individual must pay probation fees or court debt or are subject to a payment plan.
The House also passed HF 864 by a vote of 88-1. In an effort to protect minors, the bill requires adult websites to perform reasonable age verification of individuals attempting to access obscene material.
HF 572 also passed the House by a vote of 75-14. The bill would create a new state offense of “smuggling of persons.” Under the bill, a person commits a crime when the person knowingly, for payment or anything of value, does any of the following involving a person who is in violation of federal immigration laws:
Transports an individual with the intent to conceal the individual from a peace officer or flee from a peace officer
Encourages or induces a person to enter or remain in the United States in violation of federal law by concealing, harboring, or shielding that person from detection.
Aside from the fact the bill seems unnecessary as it is already against federal and state law to traffic in humans, there is concern that the bill could be interpreted by overzealous officials to criminalize providing basic charity to immigrants. Therefore, the ICC opposes the bill.
The House approved HF 189 by a 63-33 vote, which will allow nonpublic school students to participate with in an extracurricular activity in a public school if the nonpublic school does not offer the activity.
These House bills go to the Senate for consideration by a committee.
SF 288 passed the Senate unanimously and goes to the House. It requires state universities to make reasonable accommodations to students who are pregnant or who have recently given birth. The universities are already making accommodations but the bill will publicize their availability.
The Senate also unanimously approved SJR 9, which proposes a constitutional amendment to limit the ability of defendants to personally confront children or persons with mental health issues in court. It now goes to the House.
The proposal is in reaction to a state Supreme Court decision which found that a one-way video system failed to satisfy the requirements of the Iowa Constitution that a defendant be able to confront a witness, face-to-face. If it passes the House, it can be passed again by both chambers in 2027 or 2028 before going to the people of Iowa for a final vote.
In other activity at the State Capitol:
SF 599 passed a Senate appropriations subcommittee. The bill implements work reporting requirements for the 180,000 people on the Iowa Health and Wellness low-income health insurance program. It’s a subset of the Medicaid program.
The Catholic Church values the dignity of work as a way of cooperating with God’s creation, however, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the “work reporting requirements have shown clear evidence of creating artificial barriers to care, generating paperwork and bureaucracy while doing little to support people looking for work. These requirements also fail to recognize that most people on Medicaid already work.”
A similar bill, HF 948 is ready for debate in the House. We encourage you to send a note to your legislators on these bills: Red tape, lost coverage.
HF 248 passed a Senate Workforce subcommittee. The bill requires businesses to treat employees who adopt a child under 6 years of age in the same manner as a biological parent. The legislation has already passed the House.
A House Ways and Means subcommittee recommended passage of HSB 223, which legalizes online casino gambling with real money. The ICC is against the bill. Gambling becomes morally unacceptable when people deprive themselves of what is necessary to provide for their needs or those of others. We believe that gambling through phone apps causes a special danger because the great majority of people have a smartphone. A 2024 study by researchers at the University of California San Diego's Rady School of Management seems to show that online casinos cause more irresponsible gambling than even sports betting for low-income people.
HF 970 passed the House Appropriations Committee last week. The bill appropriates $1 million for Double Up Food Bucks – good – but conditions it on getting the federal government’s approval on narrowing the eligible food list to only “healthy” food - bad. Double Up Food Bucks provides matching funds for people on food stamps (SNAP) to purchase fruits and vegetables. A USDA report has suggested that SNAP participants can face heightened stigma and embarrassment due to food choice scrutiny. This may discourage eligible individuals from participating.
Refugee Day on the Hill
Despite the current pause in the federal refugee resettlement program, staff from Iowa resettlement agencies visited the Capitol to inform legislators about their work. The Refugee Alliance of Central Iowa coordinated the Refugee Day on the Hill, which also included advocacy training.
A think tank in Iowa, the Common Sense Institute, has published a study on how demographics are shaping Iowa’s economy. Among key findings, it says, “Post pandemic, Iowa has relied primarily on international migration for population growth. Since 2021, Iowa’s population has grown by 1.34% or about 60% more than it would have grown without foreign immigration … Birth rates are shrinking in Iowa.”
Dozens of life-saving CRS projects are terminated
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has issued the following statement in response to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statement on the completion of the International Humanitarian Assistance review:
“As part of the Catholic Church, Catholic Relief Services believes that human life is a precious gift from God that must be protected and nurtured. Over the past six weeks, CRS has had to halt much of our U.S. government supported work due to the lack of payments: food in warehouses could not be distributed to the hungry and women and children could not get vital health and nutrition services.
“In addition, last week’s termination of dozens of CRS’ life-saving projects will permanently cut off critical aid to more than 20 million people worldwide. Eleven of these terminated projects had received humanitarian waivers. These programs do more than save lives. They help lift communities and countries out of poverty. They support local faith-based and church partners that provide services and stability to their communities and to their countries … We urge the administration to reverse these terminations and issue prompt payments to continue this life-saving and life-giving assistance.”
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